Secret to Stewart's success— a hands off approach
By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM

NASCAR.com - Jun 13, 2:30 pm EDT NASCAR Gallery
Tony Stewart's more than happy to be the first driver/owner to be leading the point standings this late in the season since Alan Kulwicki did it on his way to the 1992 championship. But at the same time, Stewart wants to make it clear that the driver/owners who deserve the most credit in the Cup Series garage are Robby Gordon and Michael Waltrip, because they built their operations from the ground up.

"If we had to start from scratch and do our own motor program and our own chassis program, we never would have done this," Stewart said at Michigan International Speedway. "It would have been way too much of a challenge for me and I couldn't have gotten it right.

"So the guys like Robby Gordon and Michael Waltrip that are true driver/owners who have built their programs from scratch, those guys are a lot more impressive than what I am because I couldn't have done that, I don't believe. But I had the advantage of having Hendrick resources and great equipment that Gene Haas and Joe Custer have given us that was there before I got there. It was just a matter of trying to tie up the loose ends and put people in place that we thought would make a difference. And it's worked that way."

Hendrick teammates Mark Martin and defending race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. paced Saturday's final practice session in preparation for Sunday's LifeLock 400. Martin's best lap of 185.257 mph placed him atop the leaderboard at the end of 70 minutes. The Toyota of Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle's Ford and Clint Bowyer's Chevy rounded out the top five. Stewart was 17th-quickest. There were no incidents in final practice, although several drivers, including Kyle Busch and Junior, had nice saves.

However, Saturday's practices were run in cloudy, cool conditions, while Sunday's forecast is for abundant sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70s.

If anything, Stewart should take a bow for finding key people to head up his operation, folks like crew chief Darian Grubb and teammate Ryan Newman. In the case of Grubb, Stewart said Grubb's cool demeanor is the perfect compliment to Stewart's fiery personality.

"Darian is just so even-keeled and even-tempered that it's hard to get him off-center from that standpoint, and I think that's been a key factor in keeping me real calm all year," Stewart said. "No matter what happens, he just keeps a level head about it and it's kind of one of those situations I think I feed off of him, so when he's calm, I'm calm and it's kind of been that way all season for us."

And Stewart can thank Rick Hendrick for that. It was Hendrick who suggested Grubb's name to Stewart when he began his search during the off-season.

"Rick came and said, 'Hey, I think I've got a guy that would be a perfect fit for you,'" Stewart said. "And that shows you the level of commitment that Rick Hendrick has given Stewart-Haas Racing this year in helping us find key people like Darian and Tony Gibson and Bobby Hutchens. We really rely a lot of Rick and his opinions and input."

Having a driver like Newman, with his extensive engineering background and ability to provide additional feedback, has also been a plus. The fact that the two drivers have an excellent working relationship has made Stewart's job that much easier in 2009.

"We're really good friends, both at the race track and off the race track," Stewart said. "I think our relationship off the track makes us better teammates on the race track too. That was a huge component, no matter whether it's your first year, or whether you've been a team owner for 20 years, finding the right combination for crew guys, for teammates, that's a huge factor in the equation.
"If you have two guys that aren't working well together, the equation doesn't work. Ryan is a very large piece of that puzzle. Every day and every week that goes by, it just convinces me more that we made absolutely 100 percent the perfect decision."

So does Stewart consider himself the glue that holds the team together? If anything, he'd rather be an owner known for a hands-off approach—and so far, that's worked to perfection.

"Well, I don't know about the glue part, but I was the one that had to go find some of those key people at the end of the year," Stewart said. "This year it's been going and seeing the guys a couple of days a week and everybody has been busy. So it's not like when I show up—it's almost a little bit of a distraction because the guys kind of stop doing what they're doing and they get out of the rhythm for the day.

"But you go there and you just spend time with your guys and you know that everybody is doing what they're supposed to be doing, so you really don't have to worry about it. It's been kind of nice from that standpoint to just be able to go there and not really have to walk around as an owner and check on everything as much as you're walking through as a driver and thanking those guys for their hard work."